I’d like to personally apologize to America’s credit card infrastructure for what we just put it through. If you haven’t been subject to hearing the groans and moans of your wallet lately, Amazon’s Prime Day just wrapped up, and it went about as everyone expected. Absolutely nuts. The House that Bezos built racked up $24.1 billion in U.S. e-commerce spend. That’s according to Adobe Analytics, who somehow sifted through over a trillion retail site visits without going cross-eyed. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Yeah… two Black Fridays’ worth of sales in a single long weekend… in the middle of friggin’ July. And yet, this is exactly what Wall Street wanted to see from Amazon. Amazon didn’t cough up specific numbers because that’s how they roll, but third-party data confirmed Prime Day’s bender blew past even bullish expectations. Adobe forecast $23.8 billion; the final came in $300 million higher. It’s the kind of “oops, we did even better than planned” win that legit gets investors all hot and bothered. And for good reason. 

(Source: TechCrunch) 

What’s even more interesting is the categories that popped off. Appliances up 112%. Office supplies +105%. Electronics +95%. Books, tools, home stuff… a.k.a. basically every category where your parents told you “maybe wait for a sale.” Turns out America was waiting, and then it unloaded the cart like it was the end of days. For independent sellers, this was a major BFD. Small biz owners saw record sales, new customers, and probably a fresh addiction to Prime Day’s dopamine hit. Which is cool… but that’s just the start.

The even weirder metric of the Prime Day circus is the fact that Generative AI traffic to U.S. retail sites shot up 3,300% year-over-year during Prime Day. Yes, three-thousand-three-hundred percent. Before you imagine ChatGPT bots shopping for vibrators and baby wipes, here’s reality: the jump is off a minuscule base. It went from “almost nonexistent” to “barely a fraction of paid search.”

(Source: USA Today) 

Adobe admits it’s still small compared to traditional channels like email and paid ads. Paid search alone bagged 28.5% of Prime Day’s e-comm revenue. Influencers weren’t far behind, driving 19.9% of online sales. Meanwhile, GenAI chatbots are still basically a novelty, or worse, a pop-up asking if you need help finding a plunger.

But the spike matters. Because it’s the first sign that people are genuinely starting to shop via AI chat. This could eventually gut traditional search ads, wreck SEO strategies, and hand platforms like Amazon, Google, and Meta new ways to steer… and monetize… every dang click. So if you’re a retailer ignoring AI assistants, congrats: you might be the next RadioShack.

(Source: Giphy) 

With that said though, Prime Day sales were down 35% in the first two days year-over-year, according to Momentum Commerce. Meaning the “biggest Prime Day ever” headline might be a bit sandbagged. Consumers held back, waited for deeper discounts, then pounced. So while the final numbers look enormous, the early slump hints at a twitchy consumer base worried about interest rates, tariffs, and the G.O.A.T. of 'branding' running economic policy via social media. 

Also, if Amazon’s going to keep stretching Prime Day to four days, they’re eventually going to dilute the urgency that makes it a blockbuster. One day you wake up and Prime Day is the whole month of July and no one gives a sh*t anymore.

(Source: Giphy) 

So yeah… that’s where we ended with the Bezos bonanza. Prime Day remains the closest thing we have to a national online shopping holiday. Amazon continues to print money, smaller retailers ride its coattails, and AI might be poised to change how we shop for cat food and ceiling fans forever. As for shares, Amazon is up a measly +0.93% (up +2.19% over the past five trading days). Meaning, keep your eyes on the stock and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends…

At the time of publishing, Stocks.News holds positions in Amazon, Meta, and Google as mentioned in the article.